


Don't die for me

by BrightCrystal



Category: Men's Football RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Historical, M/M, Secret Relationship, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-19 09:00:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20328529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightCrystal/pseuds/BrightCrystal
Summary: Leo is the king of a country under attack and Kun is both his most trusted general and the love of his life. They are about to lose a battle, but at the last moment Kun saves the day. After the battle, emotions are running high, and sometimes it’s easier to fight than to admit how scared you are.





	Don't die for me

**Author's Note:**

> So this is just a short and very self-indulgent historical AU that is set in a land far far away (although I tried to be a bit crafty with place names and titles). This is intended to be a fictional time and place, and even if I had a certain historical period in mind, there isn’t much in the text that makes it specific to that. You can imagine it however you like. 
> 
> I would love to write like a 100k fic about this (I have sooo many ideas and headcanons!!), but I can’t commit to that, so this is more like a scene from that hypothetical fic. But I believe it stands well on its own, and if you are left wondering about something, just leave a comment or come talk to me on tumblr (dybalarcon). And I know this is far from perfect, so constructive criticism is welcomed.
> 
> Lastly I just want to point out that wars are very bad and should not exist.

“Your grace, the losses are greater than we thought.” The colonel was out of breath as he again stepped in front of the king to give an account of the latest reports from the field. It was already starting to get dark, and although the battle had ended in their narrow victory, the atmosphere in the king’s tent remained tense. “The regiment of the Duke of Mont Ades is completely destroyed. The enemy’s cavalry attacked it heavily and--“

“I know what happened,” the king interrupted, his voice more than a little annoyed. “How many dead or wounded?”

The colonel closed his eyes for a second to gather courage. He had fought two wars and even won medals for his bravery, but right now he felt afraid. “It is… At this point, that is, it is difficult to give… to give…a… a number….”

Weaker men had crumbled under the gaze of King Lionel X of Sinea. His eyes bored into the colonel, whose knees were starting to shake. The king wasn’t a tall man, in fact the colonel was almost a head taller than him, but right now the monarch felt like the biggest and most intimidating man in the world, his chin tilted a little upwards, his posture regal, waiting for an answer.

“The estimates are… We don’t…,” the colonel swallowed thickly. _Best to get it over with as quickly as possible_. “We count closer to 3000 dead and as many wounded.”

The king maintained his composure, but the colonel could see him let out a shaking breath and there was a flash of anger and sadness in his eyes. Six thousand men was a third of the army.

There was a brief moment of silence before the king spoke again.

“And the Duke of Celnessa?” he asked for the second time that evening, not looking the colonel in the eyes. His voice was soft, as was the look in his eyes, and the colonel could sense his worry. After all, the duke was not only the king’s most trusted general, but also a close friend. 

“I wasn’t able to find him, but a lieutenant of the Marquis of Avenflume had seen him helping the wounded.”

The king visibly relaxed. When the colonel gave his first report a couple of hours earlier, the king had ordered him to find Celnessa and send him to the king’s tent. At the end of the battle, the duke had led a charge that broke the enemy’s lines, and although the action won them the battle, the colonel had feared that few of their men had survived it. And bringing news of the duke’s death to the king would not have been a pleasant experience. The news that Celnessa had been seen alive had therefore been as great a relief to him as it now seemed to be to the king.

“Find the duke and send him here. Dismissed,” the king said firmly.

The colonel bowed and hurried back out onto the muddy field.

***

Javier and Angel were debating whether the strategy used in the battle had been the right one. They were sitting at opposite sides of the table that had been brought into the small tent hastily set up at the edge of the field where the two armies had met only hours earlier. The only light in the tent came from a few candles on the table and two torches set up at the far end of the small space. Although the strategy had been agreed upon the previous night, Javier insisted that Angel’s idea of attacking the enemy’s left flank mainly with infantry had been a mistake that cost them too many lives.

Leo would normally have been annoyed at their bickering, but he wasn’t listening to them now. He was sitting at the end of the table, his eyes fixed on the heavy fabric that acted as a door to the tent. Going over the tactics could wait, because the only thing on his mind was Kun.

He had seen his friend ride into the last fight of the day, leading the soldier into what seemed like certain death. And Leo’s heart had almost stopped. He had been in the middle of the battle himself, fighting alongside his men as always, but he hadn’t been able to get to Kun. When there was no sign of him as the enemy started to retreat, Leo felt the blood in his veins turn to ice as he kept thinking of what could have happened. He had grown increasingly more worried until the colonel brought him the good news.

When the fabric at the opening of the tent moved, Leo got out of his chair so fast that it tipped over behind him. A soldier of his lifeguard entered.

“Sir Sergio Agüero, Duke of Celnessa,” the soldier announced as Kun was already pushing his way passed him.

“Your majesty,” Kun said, and the relief of seeing him was so big that without really meaning to, Leo walked briskly over to him. There was only a step between them when he caught himself and stopped. Kun was looking deep into Leo’s eyes, his expression a little frantic, and a big smile on his lips.

“Agüero, the hero of the Battle of North Vale!” Angel announced triumphantly and got up to greet his fellow general. The tension that had been building up between Leo and Kun broke as Kun embraced Angel.

“Hardly the only hero, we all did our share,” Kun said modestly, but the compliment made him absolutely glow.

“You look horrible,” Javier said as he, too, got up and pulled Kun into a hug. Only now did Leo notice that Kun really did look a little worse for wear; he was clearly exhausted, and his uniform was stained with mud, and, Leo suspected, also with blood.

“Please excuse me, my lord duke, that I am not representing myself in the impeccable state that a man of your status has surely come to expect from his companions,” Kun answered, articulating every word a bit more clearly than necessary and finishing with a bow towards Javier, only barely keeping a straight face.

Both Javier and Angel burst out laughing, but something was bothering Leo:

“Where were you? Why didn’t you come to the king’s banner after the battle?” he asked Kun. It made Kun look at Leo, and the smile faded from his face. _That’s better,_ Leo thought, _now is not the time for jokes_. Of course, what he wasn’t able to admit to himself was that he needed Kun’s attention to be only on him. He didn’t want to share him with Angel and Javier right now.

“There were many wounded, many from my regiment. I wanted to be with them for a while, help with whatever I could,” Kun said and looked at Leo as if to ask if he had given an acceptable answer. Leo knew that he was possessive when it came to Kun and that he sometimes treated him unfairly, but although it made him feel a little guilty, it was his right to do so; he was king.

He gave Kun a small nod. “Good. It’s good for the morale of the soldiers,” Leo admitted. The air in the tent seemed to instantly get less thick, and Kun’s smile returned to his face, although it was a little less manic now. Javier saw it best to get back to talking about the battle.

“That last charge was something else! I thought there was no way we could win, and then I saw you cut through their line. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!” Javier said and patted Kun on the shoulder. Remembering the sight only made Leo feel sick.

“It really was!” Angel agreed. “And the soldiers would truly follow you anywhere. They clearly love you,” Angel continued admiringly, and it made Kun smile shyly.

“The most important thing is that we beat them,” he said.

“I propose a toast to our victory,” Javier suggested and fetched a bottle of liquor and four cups from the table.

“To the Duke of Celnessa!” Javier announced as they lifted their cups. Kun gave Leo an uncertain look. Even though Leo found Kun’s actions foolish, he couldn’t deny that it was thanks to Kun that they had won the battle.

“The Duke of Celnessa,” Leo said, tilting his cup slightly towards Kun and giving him an approving smile. And really, he was perfectly happy with giving Kun the credit he deserved. He was the best general Leo had. And losing him would have been a disaster.

They drank up, but as soon as they had put down their cups, Angel’s thoughts turned to the future. 

“What’s our next move?” he asked Leo eagerly.

“We need to attack them again. Our intelligence says that they have reinforcements coming from the northern provinces, so we need to be quick about it,” Leo explained.

“They’ll retreat to Watcher’s Hill. There’s no way we’ll be able to attack them there,” Kun countered matter-of-factly.

“Of course we can! The fortress there was badly damaged by a fire a few months ago, and the village is otherwise without any defenses. This is our chance!” Leo said excitedly. 

“It is true that the fortress is damaged,” Javier confirmed.

“They’ll be prepared, and there is no way we can get there before their enforcements do,” Kun argued. He was starting to sound a little annoyed.

“If we attack the village from the east we’d also have the terrain to our advantage,” Javier continued, completely ignoring Kun’s comment.

“Did you hear what I said? They’ll be waiting. In the worst case we could even be trapped between the village and the troops arriving from the north,” Kun said, staring angrily at Javier.

“And that’s exactly why we have to attack as soon as possible,” Leo insisted.

“It seems a little too risky to me,” Angel supplied. Kun gave him an approving look.

“Risky?” Leo said, looking at Angel incredulously. “You think…” Leo paused, pinching the bridge of his nose and taking a deep breath. “No no, _risky_ is charging straight into what looked like three columns of enemy cavalry with only a handful of men! And most of them infantry! _Risky _is riding at the _front_ of a charge that has no chances of succeeding! _Risky_ is doing all of that while the enemy’s cannons are firing over your head!” Leo yelled furiously, not able to keep his emotions in check anymore.

“Cannons that are ours now, might I add. I saw six of them being lifted onto carts by our men,” Kun said happily and with a cocky expression.

Leo was far from amused. He turned to Kun, a wild look in his eyes. _How could he not see how dangerous his actions had been?_

“Leave us!” Leo shouted at Javier and Angel. They hurried to get out, but as they left the tent both gave Kun a look as if to say ‘good luck’.

Leo was so angry he was almost shaking. Kun had not only done a reckless thing on the battlefield earlier, he had also not reported to the king once the battle was over. And on top of that he was now questioning the king’s strategy for what their next move should be.

Kun closed the distance between them and put a hand on Leo’s shoulder.

“Don’t!” Leo said angrily and pushed Kun’s hand away. Leo turned his back to his friend and took a few steps so that there again was some space between them.

Kun let out a sigh. “We can’t attack them now, we need time to recover from this battle,” he said, clearly preferring to discuss that over the other topic.

“They need time to recover, too, and that’s exactly why we should attack. We’d have the element of surprise!”

“Leo, it’s a bad idea, and it would be fatal to us. Let’s just enjoy this victory for a while, let the men rest and then regroup at Cranoc castle.”

“What victory is there to enjoy? We accomplished nothing!”

“Nothing?” It was Kun’s turn to get angry now. “Don’t you think stopping the enemy’s advances is a victory? They would have pushed further into our lands if we hadn’t won this battle! We are only a three-day march away from Ortros!”

“They could never take Ortros, the city’s walls could withstand even the biggest army in the world,” Leo said, not able to hide his annoyance at the whole situation.

“All the same, we should not attack them any time soon!”

“It’s not your decision to make.” Checkmate. There was nothing Kun could say to that. It was a low blow, but Leo was so angry that he didn’t care.

Kun looked at Leo with raised eyebrows and shook his head. “No, but I will do everything I can to change your mind, because the men need rest,” he said, emphasizing the last four words.

“The men are here to fight! They will fight when I tell them to fight!”

“You will lose the war if you send them into another battle now! They are tired, many are wounded, and Leo -sorry, _your grace_\- a lot of them are lying dead on that field just a few dozen meters from us!”

“We have enough--“

“No, we don’t!” Kun interrupted. He was getting increasingly agitated. “We don’t have enough anything! We need more provisions, we need more ammunition, we need to know how many of the wounded are going to survive! And are you forgetting that their army is twice the size of ours?”

“_You_ forget _your_ place! I am your king! King by the grace of God!” Leo screamed.

“And I am your friend by the grace of patience!” Kun retorted immediately, trying to stay calm, but not able to keep the anger from his voice. “Although that patience is starting to wear dangerously thin,” he added.

Leo looked at him challengingly for a moment, and Kun matched his look. A few beats passed, but it was Leo who blinked first. He turned his eyes down and then closed them tightly. Again it was some sort of instinct, like some deep need, that put him in motion and he walked over to Kun and grabbed his upper arms. He pushed himself against the general, and shook him slightly.

“Kun…” he said, sounding desperate. He felt a little lost and even ashamed as he made himself look at Kun’s face. “Why did you do that? Why did you take such a risk?”

Kun didn’t say anything for a while, he just seemed to search for something in Leo’s eyes. He looked determined, but his expression was kind. He rested his hands lightly on Leo’s hips and turned his gaze towards the ground.

“I saw them get ready to attack the battalion you were with. There was an opening… this large area with only infantrymen and they would… their cavalry would have cut them down and gotten to you in no time. I had to do something,” Kun said softly, not meeting the king’s eyes.

Leo didn’t know how to react to that. There was this fight going on inside of him; he wanted to punch Kun in the face for being so… so reckless and arrogant and impossible, but another part of him just wanted to kiss him and hold him in his arms for an eternity. Before he could decide on what feeling was stronger, Kun continued: “I had to protect my king.”

It made Leo a little sad. “Only ‘your king’?” he asked, knowing he might be pushing Kun’s patience a bit further than he should.

Kun deliberated for a moment, and then looked straight into Leo’s eyes. “I had to protect _you_.” His hands tightened on Leo’s hips. “You’re my everything. You know that,” he said.

And so Leo’s mind was made up. He threw his arms around Kun’s neck and kissed him hungrily. No finesse, no tenderness, just raw want and need. Kun answered with the same intensity, but then pulled away.

“Not here,” he whispered.

“They know better than to disturb us,” Leo reassured him and then leaned in to kiss him again, but Kun turned his face away from him. Leo let out a sigh and rested his head on Kun’s shoulder.

“_This_ is too risky,” Kun said with a tentative smile, sounding like he wasn’t really certain if they were ready to joke about that whole thing already. Leo didn’t want to find it funny, but he breathed out a little laugh and felt Kun relax against him.

Leo kissed Kun’s neck lightly, but then let go of him and walked to the opening of the tent without saying anything. He pulled the fabric to the side and told the soldiers outside not to let anyone in under any circumstances.

He then returned to his previous position, pressing himself against Kun’s front and hugging him tightly. “Better now?” he asked.

Kun let out an annoyed sigh, but then admitted: “yes”.

He answered Leo’s hug and then kissed him hungrily, which drew a small surprised sound from the king. It spurred Kun on, and so he pulled at Leo’s hair as he pushed his tongue into his mouth. They let themselves get lost in the moment, in each other, and just shut out everything else that was happening around them. Kun moved his hands along Leo’s body and soon they wound their way under the king’s blue coat. Kun’s hands on him was like heaven for Leo. Having only a thin undershirt between his skin and Kun’s touch sent shivers down his spine, and although he felt himself starting to get aroused, it hit Leo how much Kun felt like home. He made Leo feel safe.

“You’re my everything, too,” Leo whispered, only taking his lips off of Kun’s for a second.

Kun breathed out Leo’s name into their kiss before dropping his hands lower to cup his ass. It made Leo moan softly and push his hips against Kun. Leo started to pull at Kun’s clothes, first at his coat, and when he got Kun to shrug it off, he started to undo the laces on his shirt. Kun was watching him intently, and Leo blushed under his gaze.

The campaign had made Kun’s muscles more pronounced, and when Leo ran his fingers lightly over his toned chest and stomach, his cock responded with a twitch. He cupped himself through the thick fabric still covering him, but his hand was soon joined by Kun’s. As they kissed again, Kun’s touches got more daring, and it wasn’t long before he had managed to undo the fly of Leo’s trousers.

When Kun took Leo’s hard cock into his hand and stroked it gently, Leo felt faint and he had to lean against the other. He briefly thought about how strange it was that Kun’s touch always made him feel just as good as they had done the first time so many years ago, all giddy with excitement and want. But when Kun sped up the pace just slightly, Leo’s mind became completely blank. The only thing that existed was pleasure.

Leo kissed Kun’s bare chest, while his hands travelled down to the waistband of Kun’s trousers. He quickly undid the fly and Kun let out a shaking breath as Leo mimicked his movements and started stroking him. 

They both sped up the pace, and their moans soon filled the small tent that shielded them from the realities of the world outside. Both knew just how the other one liked it, years of experience having made them experts on each other’s bodies, so it was clear that this wasn’t going last long. Their kisses were becoming less coherent, their breaths a little ragged, but Leo wanted to do something more for Kun. He felt like he had something to make up for, and the most immediate apology he could think of was to get down on his knees.

Kun gasped loudly as Leo took his cock into his mouth. Leo licked just under the head with the tip of his tongue as his hand worked on the shaft. His other hand was busy on his own cock, and he could feel a big drop of precum leak out as Kun pushed his fingers into Leo’s hair again. Leo took Kun deeper, and then let Kun push in and out of his mouth in small movements.

“Look at me,” Kun asked, and Leo obliged. He met Kun’s eyes and it was a little more intense than he had expected. A wave of emotions crashed over him; the feeling of relief that Kun was alive and guilt over their argument, but the strongest feeling was complete adoration for the man in front of him. He was so thankful for getting to have a friend like this. A _lover_ like this.

Kun stroked Leo’s cheek with light fingers, and then scratched that one spot just below Leo’s ear that always made him tingle. Now it made Leo lose the rhythm a little, but he soon got into it again. Kun kept his hips still, but Leo compensated with a faster pace, and Kun was starting to sound like he might be close. Leo put a hand on Kun’s thigh and felt him tremble from being so turned on. He gave Kun a small nod; _you can come_, and it didn’t take long before Kun thrusted into his mouth a couple of times and came with a hoarse shout.

Leo quickly finished himself off, and was then pulled to his feet by Kun, who immediately kissed him. They were both out of breath, and they stayed still, embracing each other, for a good while, waiting for their heartbeats to slow down. The silence between them was comfortable, but Leo needed to let Kun know:

“I love you,” he said with his head resting on Kun’s shoulder.

“I love you, too,” Kun’s answer came without hesitation.

The war and the world outside could wait a little longer.


End file.
